Classical Mythology by Harris and Platzner

This book is the bomb. Really. If you are truly interested in ancient Greek myth, you should own this book. It’s typically used as an college textbook in Mythology classes and has 1105 pages, but if you need just one reference, this should be it.

It has everything. It quotes big chunks of original text (including the complete Medea and the Bacchae), it relates Greek stuff to other cultures (Egyptian, Babylonian, etc.), it puts a significant amount of information about the goddesses into the patriarchal framework of the culture, it talks about the feminist alternatives, it has new archaeological and anthropological studies on the Great Goddess, it has a section on modern European and American art, it even has a website where you can go for chapter outlines, quizzes, and learning objectives making it a fantastic resource for teachers.

And yet, for some reason, I virtually ignored this book for the past 7 or so years. I don’t know why. I was young and foolish and thought I knew all there was to know (hey, I was literally a sophomore). I didn’t even include it on this site’s References page.

It has theory, it has original sources, it has information about worship, it has pretty color pictures. My goddess, what is NOT to adore?

So please, if you read this blog because you are genuinely interested in Classical Mythology, do yourself a favor and go buy this book. It cost me $100, but you can get it used for $30 over at fetchbook.info. I swear that I’m not taking bribes to write this, I just care about your access to quality stuff.